These issues are directly and indirectly connected to ReCIPE’s main research themes. PhD Research Grants can fund research assistance, data collection and/or purchase, and potentially research stipends/teaching buyouts (if sufficiently justified). Grants can also support travel to field sites, even when secondary data is utilised.

While they view this kind of travel (with the possibilities for field visits and conversations with policymakers) as particularly valuable for researchers who lack prior experience in the countries that they intend to study, applicants proposing in-country activities will need to strongly justify the activities and outline relevant security and safety considerations.

Themes

• Theme 1: Public policies for peace
  • Theme 1 explores how public policies can influence the incentives that drive individuals and groups to engage in violence - whether in the form of armed conflict, terrorism, or organised crime.
• Theme 2: Private and public investment and peace
  • Theme 2 is devoted to generate evidence on the economic determinants of conflict; and on the role of public investment in the private and public sectors in mitigating or preventing violence of any form.
• Theme 3: Institutions, democracy, and peace
  • Theme 3 focuses on the complementarity between stability, economic development, and institutions.
• Theme 4: Geoeconomics
  • The goal of Theme 4 is to generate, coordinate and disseminate policy-relevant academic research on geoeconomics, broadly defined as the link between geopolitics and economics.
• Theme 5: Climate change, natural resources, and conflict
  • Theme 5 will involve research on the links between the climate change, natural resource curse, natural disasters, the green transition and conflict.
• Theme 6: Information and conflict: From the role of (social) media and public opinion to big data and forecasting
  • Theme 6 addresses the links between conflict and hate speech, social media use, media bias, propaganda, and public (in)attention; and englobes efforts to forecast conflict occurrence.
• Theme 7: Ethnic diversity and nation-building
  • Theme 7 will support research that sheds light on how developing societies can break out from an ethnic growth trap.
• Theme 8: Peacemaking, peacebuilding, and reconstruction
  • Theme 8 focuses on peacekeeping, mediation, ceasefires, peace settlements, post-war reconstruction, and reconciliation.
• Theme 9: Gender, inequality, and conflict
  • Theme 9 will explore the link between gender norms and representation and conflict; and will study how discrimination, economic inequality, and lack of social mobility shape the scope for political violence.

Eligibility Criteria

• They welcome applications to their PhD Research Grant calls from researchers all over the world, and encourage applications that propose collaboration between researchers from lower- and higher-income countries.
• In view of the current political situation and the imposition of economic sanctions on various Russian entities by Western governments, they are not currently able to accept proposals for projects that include researchers or members of the research team who are based at Russian institutions.
• In view of the nature of ReCIPE's research themes, they also strongly encourage applications from multidisciplinary teams.
• Principal investigators applying to PhD Research Grant calls should already be enrolled in a PhD programme. Given the level of project insight and development expected in the application, successful applicants are more likely to be in their second year or beyond of their programme.
• The PhD Research Grants are designed to support students as they pursue their own research and as such are typically submitted by either individual students or teams of students. Although there are no formal qualification requirements for co-investigators, co-investigators on ReCIPE-funded projects usually have a PhD or are enrolled in a PhD programme. The knowledge, expertise, and qualifications of the entire research team will be taken into account when evaluating the proposal.
• In-country Research:
  • For research projects conducting in-country studies in conflict or post-conflict settings, additional restrictions may apply. Funding decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the country’s current situation, applicable sanctions, and any necessary risk assessments and requirements.
  • Researchers whose proposals rely on the collection of data in-country will be required to outline in their proposal the implications for the project of potential delays and the alternatives to face-to-face fieldwork. This can be included in the methodology section of the proposal template.
  • Any fieldwork will need to be cleared by the researcher’s university and, where possible, in-country IRBs. Decisions on fieldwork should follow the advice of governments and should especially consider the security situation of the location.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

• Quality of the proposed research
• Relevance to policy
• Feasibility and credibility of the proposal
• Value for money
• Contributions to expanding the field

For more information, visit ReCIPE.